Chadwick Set For Title Defence
By Phil Michell Motorsport Media.
The most prestigious race on the South Australian Wingless Sprint calendar will take place this weekend (Saturday January 14) at Adelaide Motorsport Park with the running of the 2017 ENZED South Australian Title. Currently the entry list stands at 24 nominations from across the State and Victoria.
Heading the line-up is current State Champion Joel Chadwick and if his recent form is anything to go by he will be extremely hard to beat, but as with any title event anything can happen and there are a whole host of talented drivers that would love to remove the SA #1 from the tail tank of Chadwick’s black, white and green machine.
Along with Chadwick the field includes a number of drivers who know how to get it done at AMP including previous Adelaide Track Champions Robert Heard and Matthew Kennedy and the likes of Spencer Taylor, Michael Spoljaric, Darryl Sloan and Anthony Tapley, all of whom have won feature races this season.
The Victorian entry is also a strong one with regular front runners Travis Millar and Wayne Hurford. The Mildura region will also be well represented with Anthony and Melissa McMillan, Jason Bolitho and Shaun McClure.
ENZED SA Wingless Sprint Title Nominations – Saturday 14th January 2017, Adelaide Motorsport Park: S1 Joel Chadwick, S4 Travis Beasley, S6 Michael Ross, S8 Darryl Sloan, V8 Shaun McClure, S13 Dale Gesell, S16 Joel Heinrich, S19 Michael Spoljaric, S21 Matthew Kennedy, S24 Aaron Doe, S31 Casey Vanderstelt, S33 Brad Evans, S37 Anthony McMillan, S41 Bronson Mauro, S46 Spencer Taylor, S47 Anthony Tapley, S52 Jason Bolitho, S57 Robert Heard, S73 Melissa McMillan, V73 Wayne Hurford, S82 Greg Cunningham, S85 Trent Gravestock, V93 Travis Millar, S94 Haydyn Farrow. (Total 24).
The ENZED South Australian Wingless Sprint Title this weekend comes hot on the heels of two nights of racing last weekend with a Friday night show at Adelaide Motorsport Park before moving to Murray Bridge on Saturday. In what was the perfect tune up for the Title defending Champion Joel Chadwick swept both nights of competition with Michael Spoljaric also having a good weekend with a second and a seventh placing over the two nights of racing.
After winning his final heat, finishing behind Darryl Sloan in heat two Joel Chadwick was the top qualifier at Adelaide Motorsport Park and he was never headed in the final defeating Michael Spoljaric and William Caruso. After starting on the front row Sloan failed to finish the final after Spencer Taylor spun in front of Sloan as they battled for second leaving Sloan with no other option but to slam the turn four wall, sustaining enough damage to keep him out of competition for the rest of the weekend. Matthew Kennedy, Bronson Mauro and Aaron Doe were the only other finishers.
At Murray Bridge the field almost doubled with 18 drivers signing in at the pit gate with notable absentees being Dale Gesell and Sloan after their difficulties from the night before.
The night started off in ominous fashion as Chadwick won the opening heat ahead of Robert Heard and William Caruso with heat two going the way of Victorian veteran Peter Logue as he capitalised on his front row start to beat Anthony Tapley and Spencer Taylor. The final heat of the night proved to be the most dramatic as an incident involving Matthew Kennedy and Renee Pestka in turn two would end Pestka’s night with a heavily damaged front end.
For the second night in a row Chadwick would dominate the final but Robert Heard and Peter Logue would battle it out in entertaining fashion for the runner-up spot. Unfortunately the race would be cut a couple of laps shy of the scheduled distance after David Cuppleditch was involved in a wild roll over in turn four. It was the second meeting in a row that Cuppleditch had ridden out a big wreck at the Murray Bridge venue.
Therefore the declared results would be Chadwick, Heard and Logue on the podium with Tapley, Joel Heirich, Mildura’s Jay Brown, Spoljaric, William Caruso, Matthew Kennedy and Aaron Doe rounding out the top ten.